well, I heard from my friend out east that the MISL officially ceased operations today. All players have officially become free agents. All foreign player' visas have been cancelled. It's official. The MISL is no more. I guess there will be some type of announcement early next week. Time to see if the regional spin off leagues will take root. Sad day as far as I'm concerned. Time to hit the moonshine I reckon...

I guess players from each of the teams were notified Friday. Some guys can count on camps to generate income. Some others are going to be hurtin' real bad. It's official. Even if there hasn't been a press release yet. Players and coaches are scrambling...

The MISL office in CT has shutdown operations. Ryan is gone and the entire front office staff was let go on Friday. It's up to the owners now to come together collectively and form a new league.

I hope, for the players sake, it happens sooner than later (new league)......

The MISL as we knew it has gone away. But like someone has said already...wait to hear the good news next week of BIGGER and better things for next season.

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I really can't see this whole idea of "BIGGER" things to come. Ok, you may be able to get away with "better" things, but can somebody honestly say that whatever is being rumbled about can actually be BIGGER than what we had?

I really can't see this whole idea of "BIGGER" things to come. Ok, you may be able to get away with "better" things, but can somebody honestly say that whatever is being rumbled about can actually be BIGGER than what we had?

Seriously, this time; y'all realize this year would have been the 30th anniversry of the kickoff of the original MISL? Well, I guess it still is, but sadly, there's no real way to celebrate. .

Kinda sucks, ya know?

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I'm going to be celebrating and you're all invited. PASL-Pro already has teams from the MISL, AISL, and PASL and we're close to adding a familiar name that's been dormant.

A pro league, international play, a genuine farm system, a clean break from all the baggage, and best of all single point scoring. And it's a very inclusive atmosphere and we're all doing it for the love of the game. Kevin Milliken is the anti-Ryan.

I had not heard that the MISL office staff was let go. If true thats odd. The idea about moving to Baltimore or doing the job out of NJ instead of Southern CT was going to be done by one or two.

Are you sure about the foreign players visa's being cancelled too? I'd find that odd. When I was in hockey teams and leagues folded all the time. We never saw players who had visas' cancelled. Another team could take over the sponsorship and the INS frankly had no real way of knowing until after the fact. They'd issue the guys a visa and it had a date of validity stamped in it.

Although we did have a player deported. Not Oggie Oglethorpe, but a guy to Finland who was caught driving drunk with a underage girl in the car. He was shown the door.

well, I heard from my friend out east that the MISL officially ceased operations today. All players have officially become free agents. All foreign player' visas have been cancelled. It's official. The MISL is no more. I guess there will be some type of announcement early next week. Time to see if the regional spin off leagues will take root. Sad day as far as I'm concerned. Time to hit the moonshine I reckon...

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I understand a Blast player was notified last night by upper management a well.

well, I heard from my friend out east that the MISL officially ceased operations today. All players have officially become free agents. All foreign player' visas have been cancelled. It's official. The MISL is no more. I guess there will be some type of announcement early next week. Time to see if the regional spin off leagues will take root. Sad day as far as I'm concerned. Time to hit the moonshine I reckon...

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Let's not jump the gun. You should know that, on the NJ Ironmen website (njironmen.com) there is a new fan poll asking where fans would like to see the MISL expand to. (The choices are Louisville, Boston, St Louis and Kansas City, fyi.)

In addition, I did a bankruptcy court search on the MISL -- nothing came up. (No, I'm not a creditor trolling the blogs.)

I'm ready to support the league financially next year. Who else is with me?

Let's not jump the gun. You should know that, on the NJ Ironmen website (njironmen.com) there is a new fan poll asking where fans would like to see the MISL expand to. (The choices are Louisville, Boston, St Louis and Kansas City, fyi.)

In addition, I did a bankruptcy court search on the MISL -- nothing came up. (No, I'm not a creditor trolling the blogs.)

I'm ready to support the league financially next year. Who else is with me?

Some of you are so eager to see the MISL fail, fold, etc. You remind me of the soccer purists who couldn't stand the old 35-yard-line offside rule. (I'm no fan of the shootout or of penalty kicks, you should play until you drop like the NHL playoffs.) How can you purport to be soccer fans when you want to see the only indoor league of consequence go bust?
There is absolutely no evidence that the MISL has folded, but you are eager to hammer the nails in the coffin. You sound like the knuckle-draggers who think every soccer player is a green-card-carrying Commie.

Let me address the inference that the league folded because the office in Westport, CT closed. Here is a theory: Ryan or a corporate affiliate of his which may have been operating the league office decided to shut its own operations down. (Makes sense: Ryan resigns, no income coming in, why keep the lights on?) That does not mean the league itself went kaput, it only indicates that the "subcontractor" shut down the Connecticut location. And that would be entirely sensible as Ryan resigned last week; why would he incur continuing costs after having resigned? The league just has to move its operational headquarters, which is no different from what countless other businesses do. Don't jump the gun.)

Sorry to vent on you, but last night I had my first MISL-related nightmare about the league folding. I never have nightmares and someone gave me one, so someone is going to pay for that.

How can you purport to be soccer fans when you want to see the only indoor league of consequence go bust? .

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This is exactly why I do not post here much anymore and will not post much in the future either. Alot of these people here claim to be fans of the game but they want the league to fold. Some try and cover it phate the game,the sport,the league, why they waste their time posting here. I hate the WNBA but you will never see me posting on their boards.

For the people who say that are realists... If you believe you are realists and thnk the game is bad,why do you waste your time talking about it?

Don, if you read an article in the newspaper about the MISL folding and it had 10 difference sources would you say there is absolutely no evidence ?

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This goes for you too,if you hate the game so much and you are just waiting for it to fold,why are you wasting your time here? The summer is getting ready to start , enjoy the weather and stop making yourself angry over a league you hate.

This is exactly why I do not post here much anymore and will not post much in the future either. Alot of these people here claim to be fans of the game but they want the league to fold. Some try and cover it phate the game,the sport,the league, why they waste their time posting here. I hate the WNBA but you will never see me posting on their boards.

For the people who say that are realists... If you believe you are realists and thnk the game is bad,why do you waste your time talking about it?

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If you were a huge basketball fan and the WNBA replaced the NBA and was the only source of pro basketball would you still root on the WNBA?

No one wants the teams to fold or the sport to fail. Sometimes you need a clean break for a fracture to properly heal.

We were all told to hate Iraq and they're our ally and we're supposed to be wishing them success. Similar changes had to be made in the MISL for the good of the game longterm.

Hopefully all the MISL teams will find new homes and better ways to do business. PASL-Pro seems like as good a way to do it as I've seen in a long time.

Don, if you read an article in the newspaper about the MISL folding and it had 10 difference sources would you say there is absolutely no evidence ?

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I've been trolling the AP wire both last night and today. I even did a court records check (which will be re-run in a few days). There can always be a plausible explanation why something hasn't shown up, and it's also possible the league did fold and there's no press conference. When some companies go bust, they just shut the lights on the way out and don't issue a press release.

What we have right now is anecdotal evidence from a few bloggers. This could be the absolute truth. However, at 1 pm on Saturday, May 31, the following cannot be disputed:

1. A blogger entry, uncorroborated, is not evidence.
2. A blogger's report is only as accurate as the source -- so if your source is giving you rubbish, your story will not be true regardless of how often it's repeated.
3. The absence of evidence is not evidence.

On the other hand, former Cleveland Crunch owner Bart Wolstein folded his club in 1992 (I think?) despite it being profitable or close to profitability (someone fact-check this, I cannot verify but do remember this), because he felt the league was not able to be sustained. It is possible that the credible, moderately successful organizations in the league could decide to "walk away" if they come to the same assessment. Therefore, let me concede that the story of the MISL folding is, however (if) untrue, simply not outrageous but rather plausible.